Oxygen Administration Course run by BSAC by Angela Shaw
On deciding to attend this course I searched the BSAC site for an Oxygen Administration course as HSAC wasn't currently running one and I am preparing to progress to Dive Leader qualification and this course is very beneficial to my qualification. I visited the BSAC site and went to the relevant page Click here to access the correct area directly.
Monika Krawjewska very kindly offered to drive and collected me at 7.30am on the morning of the course and we travelled together chatting as we normally do on a journey, which made the journey seem quicker.
We arrived at the little hall in St Albans for the course a little early, and noted how cold it was, what a shock it was when we found out the hall was colder, how can that be….. when we entering the hall the alarm sounded and guess what! an organiser has miss noted the alarm code and we spent approx 1/2hour in the cold with the alarm ringing in our ears. Ouch! They couldn’t find the switch for the radiator to put the heating on but it gave us all something to talk about while the team were sorting out the little glitches. In fact it broke the ice for everyone who attended the course so not a bad thing. And it gave us time for a cup of tea to start the day.
When the issues were sorted out Clive our regional coach began the course with the normal facilities information and introducing the course and its Objectives for the day and the instructors for the day.
The course from then on was very well planned with the instructors following the course detail with a good mix of theory and practical sessions. The theory was very informative and detailed, the practical was instructive and questions on both areas were encouraged.
As with all the courses I have attended the one thing I can always be assured of is that it makes me think about the dives and have an awareness of the specifics ie if on a hardboat on a trip if not taking your own oxygen equipment ensure you ask the skipper to have a look at his ie see if they have two masks as if there is an incident there is a possibility that the person who had the incident would need the Oxygen and their buddy as a precaution if not as a requirement too.
Maybe it would be handy to take your own personal mask in your spares/equipment! The roleplay was brilliant. We covered all aspects of the unconscious diver, conscious diver, non-breathing diver, recovery position how to get them to that position, particularly if the diver is larger and heavier than you are, without injuring yourself in the process.
The process of multiple people in the area of a casualty the requirement to include people in the process as possible to ensure that all feel included in the process, the management of this can be difficult. The process of swapping between the person who is doing chest compressions when the person who is doing the rescue breathes to ensure a smooth change over when one is tried during a particulary long session. How to raise the alarm, the use of the pocket mask, treating a near drowning accident dealing with shock, when to give water and when not to, types of drink that would be allowed ie isotonic drinks and which not too ie pepsi if allowed to drink. Positions to place people in dependent on the issues at hand when to lie people down and when not to. Type of equipment and knowledge of changes coming up to equipment and where these can be filled and where not.
The above is just a sample of the information we gleaned from the course its amazing how much information can be packed into a day if planned well.
At the end of the day we sat an exam, long time since I did one of those I was dreading it but was fine I passed which is the main thing, the instructors were happy to go over the questions I got wrong to find out the reason why, yes I got a couple wrong but in my defence when I looked at them it was my interpretation of the question that I got wrong when asked the same question in a different way I knew the answer which I was quite pleased about.
Our instructors for the day were:
Clive Murphy - National Instructor/Mid Herts Divers
Richard Sutherland - Mile Zero
Rod Reeves - Mid Herts Divers
I’d like to take the opportunity to thank them for the interesting and informative day and for there time and effort.
